Set Visit: Amityville Horror

Part of the reason JoBlo sent me on this set visit was the
fact that you can bounce quarters off the muscles on my arms.Okay, so maybe thatâs not true.Itâs actually my ass.But
the real reason is that Iâve never seen THE
AMITYVILLE HORROR or read the novel it is based on
(incidentally, I canât even read), so he saw the importance of
remaining objective about the visit and not getting all fanboy about
âhow dare they do a remake on thisâ or âthat house looks
nothing like the original house.âWell,
we were shown pictures of the new house (as youâve probably seen
already-- scroll down below) and I have to say that it looks pretty
frigginâ spooky but hey, youâll decide what you want.

But before I get any further into the Amityville set
experience, hereâs a brief synopsis of whatâs going down with
the story:

âOn November 14, 1974, police
received a frantic phone call that led them to a nightmarish crime
scene at the Defeo residence in Amityville, Long Island - an entire
family had been slaughtered in their beds. In the days that
followed, Ronald Defeo confessed to methodically shooting his
parents and four siblings while they slept, claiming
"voices" in the house drove him to commit the grisly
murders. One year later, George and Kathy Lutz and their three
children moved into the house thinking it would be their dream home.
But shortly after settling in, bizarre and unexplainable events
began to occur to the family as George was plagued by nightmarish
visions and haunting voices from the evil presence still lurking
within the residence. 28 days after moving in, the Lutzes abandoned
the home - lucky to escape with their lives.â

Ryan Reynolds (VAN WILDER, BLADE III) plays George
Lutz, husband to Kathy Lutz and step-father to her three children.George with every passing day, becomes increasingly
transfixed on the basement of the house, and possessed with demonic
forces that plague the familyâs new home.

Melissa George (ALIAS, MULHOLLAND DRIVE) plays
Georgeâs wife, Kathy Lutz, and discovers their dream houseâs
terrifying history is responsible for the unexplainable phenomenon
the family is experiencing.

Good olâ Philip Baker Hall (MAGNOLIA, MIDNIGHT RUN)
plays Father Callaway, a priest at the local church who Kathy has
out to the house to cleanse itsâ demonic energy.

This is director Andrew Douglasâ first feature film,
having directed tons of high profile commercials for Nike,
Microsoft, Verizon and Volvo.

With two-thirds of filming done in Wisconsin (principle
photography should wrap this week), interiors were shot in a
warehouse in a suburb of Chicago (tentative release date: April 15,
2005).Aside from warehouses
generally being dark and creepy, especially when theyâre full of
men, the actual set of what was being filmed was the basement of the
Lutzâs house.Stone walls
with cobwebs dressing every corner, wooden stairs that occasionally
creak when being stepped on and boxes and newspaper littered the
stone floor if this dark and dingy basement.

Think the basement in STIR OF ECHOES.

Think âRussellâs old roomâ in the basement of PULP
FICTION.

âKATCH âEM AND KILL âEMâ

Before filming took place, the unit publicist John Pisani
(who looks remarkably like Mark Ruffalo in ETERNAL SUNSHINE) showed
a select group of miscreants (read: us web-heads) a boat house
constructed for a big scene in the third act of the movie.Just down the road, a crew of ten or so was building the top
half of the Amityville house (the one most of you hate) for a scene
in which one of the children is being chased on the roof.Apparently you canât chase a kid on an actual roof of an
actual house.Insurance, man.

Back in the warehouse, the first scene being shot was the
Lutzâs first tour of the home, of the basement.After some small talk between George and Kathy Lutz, Kathy heads
upstairs to the real estate agent, while George becomes momentarily
curious about an old radio he knocked over in the process of
following his wife.

Nothing too exciting, but the three scenes filmed that day
all had to do with George Lutzâs growing fixation on the house.After a couple of takes on the first scene, it became clear
that director Andrew Douglas wasnât completely satisfied with the
blocking of the shot.Â âItâs
got to have a personality,â he told his director of photography,
which later in an interview he would elaborate on, that the
personality of the house was in fact a presence, that the house was
discreetly watching these new occupants of the house.I have that same feeling when Iâm home but I suspect it has
to do with my creepy uncle.

The second basement scene involved George filling the
basement fireplace with wood, becoming distracted by something he
hears, (or thinks he hears) while the third scene shows a more
dejected and visually disturbed George sitting alone in the basement
and snapping at his wife about her son not chaining the dog up like
heâs suppose to.

Watching the first two scenes, itâs somewhat difficult to
gauge the actorâs performances, as the mood and temperament of the
scenes was somewhat low key and introductory, but if Ryan
Reynoldsâ delivery when he snaps at his wife in the third scene is
any kind of precursor to his later scenes when his mind goes
completely ape shit, then plenty of people are going to be surprised
at his performance.

At the far corner of the warehouse, separate from the
basement set, our man John Pisani took us to what looked like a mini
house and what was actually Chelsea Lutzâs bedroom.The interior of it was decorated with seventies style colors
and relics, dolls and toys, your typical seven to ten year old
little girl bedroom, and as we made our way outside, someone says
âLook at that,â and right there on the white wall of the stairs,
written in red (presumably blood) and chicken scratch handwriting,
it says in big, bold letters:

âKATCH âEM AND KILL âEMâ

And thus, the conclusion of my visit to the set of THE
AMITYVILLE HORROR.Thanks to
the fine folks at MGM for the opportunity and unit publicist Mr.
Cool, John Pisani, for the tour of the set and all the informative
production notes and so on.Bummer
that we didnât get to take any photos, but on the non-bummer side,
the catering was tops.Stay
tuned for interviews with Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George and Director
Andrew Douglas on JoBlo.com...